A Very Magical Ball
by Slytherin Cat
Summary: What if Harry had been quicker and got to Cho before Cedric did? Well, our poor Hufflepuff would have had to find someone else. Cedric/Daphne.


_**OS written for the Let's End This The Way We Started It Challenge, the Christmas Prompt Challenge (mistletoe), the Weird Random Pairing Competition, the Pairing Diversity Bootcamp (flabbergasted), Your Favorite House Bootcamp(Take me with you) and the Kiss In the/At the/On the Competition on the HPFC.**_

**A Very Magical Ball**

Magical was the word he was looking for. And maybe a bit wet too. Two month ago, he would never have thought he would be here, on the Yule Ball, kissing his escort, one Daphne Greengrass. Neither would he have thought he would be with her. Sure, he had noticed her (and seriously, who wouldn't?), but she had always been someone unattainable, someone who wouldn't even consider his invitation. They had surprised the whole school apparently, so he wasn't the only one who didn't even dare dream of being with her.

He would have thought it harder, to get a date. Not that it had been so easy in the beginning. Oh, what a day it had been…

_Flashback:_

It was the beginning of December and Mrs. Sprout had just told them about yet another tradition of the Triwizard Tournament: the Yule Ball. As a Champion, Cedric was supposed to open it, but for that he needed an escort.

The girls were all very excited about the Ball, and everyone could hear them talking about their dresses and who they wanted to go with, how they wanted someone to ask them… He heard that one expected the boy who asked her to court her first. It was just for one night! He was sure that most guys weren't expecting ta actually date the girl they went with after the Ball.

The fact that they always seemed to be in groups made it difficult for a guy to ask the girl he wanted to, in the off case he managed to gather enough courage to do so.

Cedric wanted to ask Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw who was also a fellow Quidditch player. Unfortunately Cho was one of the girls who never seemed to be alone. He wasn't a Gryffindor, he didn't have the courage to ask her in front of everyone and risk being turned down.

It took him a week to find her alone, except that someone else approached her first. It was Harry Potter, the other Hogwarts' champion and he had to watch from the sidelines as the girl he had wanted to ask for a very long week smiled and accepted the black-haired Gryffindor's invitation.

He was back at square one, with no date, no idea who to ask and only two weeks to find one else he be the laughingstock of all three schools. While it would probably not be noticed if someone didn't have a date, for a Champion not to have one was another matter entirely.

He had to find someone.

It was the next morning, at breakfast that he saw her. Of course, he had seen her before, but at that moment he _noticed_ her. Daphne Greengrass, a fourth year Slytherin girl was sitting alone at the table, eating elegantly a piece of bread and watching with a disinterested eye the happenings of the morning.

Daphne was a straight blond haired girl with azure eyes she had inherited from her mother, Adelaide Greengrass. She was, of course, a pureblood (after all, Slytherin was constituted of 99 percent pureblood and one percent halfblood).

Slytherin was a very different House, firstly because of this high concentration of rich students from old wizarding families. Some, like Malfoy, couldn't resist flaunting their wealth and telling everyone about how powerful they would be. The keyword being "would be".

There was also the higher presence of dark wizards and witches. This, combined with the bad reputation of the green and silver House, sufficed for them to be ostracized. Slytherins were mocked every day, and attacked, even more now that Draco Malfoy was in his stupid crusade against the Boy-Who-Lived. Apparently, no matter how fallen in grace the Gryffindor was, he still had many fans.

The Slytherin's House was all about survival and gathering connections that would help later on. Daphne, who wanted to be an Unspeakable, didn't really have to worry about these but more on her grades. She needed as many O as she could to be accepted, since the Department of Mystery only accepted the best.

Not wishing to be involved in fishy House business (especially with the Death Eaters' groupies. The dark Lord had been killed by a toddler, and that in itself was a proof that he wasn't worthy of being followed. But apparently a few of her housemates didn't see it that way), she had early on decided to keep herself isolated from the rest of them.

The only one she associated with were Tracey Davis (part of the unfortunate one percent) and Blaise Zabini, the son of the Black Widow, and thus well-respected amongst the House. Of course, outside it, everyone denied everything. Those two were the only one she considered as friends, and they currently fancied each other (had been for over a year but too stubborn to notice that it was reciprocal).

Which left her with a problem. With who was she going to go the incoming Yule Ball? She couldn't go with Blaise, who was the only bearable boy in her year, because he had found the guts to ask Tracey (who of course said yes) so that left the older ones. She wouldn't be caught dead with a younger one. She had a pride, thank you very much.

This was why she was watching the whole Hall this morning at breakfast. She was trying to find someone she could take with her to the Ball and not be ashamed of. She had heard from Tracy that the last Weasley was asking every woman he saw that looked pretty enough and she wanted to be taken before he decided that even a "slimy Slytherin" would be better than bringing an ugly one.

She had nothing against going with a student of another House, but she drew the line at the youngest Weasley. There was no way she would let him approach her. Luckily he wasn't even there this morning, so she didn't have to see him inhale food like he hadn't eaten for weeks.

Instead she noticed someone looking at her. It was the Hogwarts' Champion, Cedric Diggory. He may not be a Slytherin, but he was good-looking (very fit from what she could see and had heard) and from what she knew, still without a date. In other words, perfect for her. A Hufflepuff wouldn't dare hurt her, it was against their nature.

She watched him leave the Great Hall and waited five minutes before following him slowly. She found him in an empty corridor and approached him.

"Take me with you"

"Excuse me?" He stared at her, flabbergasted. "What did you say?"

"I said 'Take me with you'. To the Yule Ball." She repeated, rolling her eyes. "That way we both have someone to go with that won't bother us, and you have someone who knows how to dance properly to open the Ball."

He had to admit that her offer was very tempting. If he went with her then he wouldn't have to worry about finding an escort, and being a pureblood he was sure Daphne knew how to held herself in such a gathering. Plus she was beautiful…

"Alright. I'll do it"

"Don't sound so resigned. I'm doing you a favor." She waited a few minutes but he said nothing.

"Well? Isn't the boy supposed to ask the girl if she want to come with him?"

"But… You just said…"

Her only answer was to quirk elegantly an eyebrow at him.

"Mrs. Greengrass, would you do me the honor of being my date to the Yule Ball?" He finally asked.

"Of course. And call me Daphne"

_End Flashback_

They had met a few time after that, mostly to be perfectly prepared. She had wanted to know how he would be dressed so she could find a dress that would be the right color. She hadn't let him see it until the night of the Ball though, not that it really surprised him.

They had also decided that they would meet directly at the entrance of the Great Hall, twenty minutes before the beginning. The Champions were scheduled to arrive only ten minutes before but she always preferred to be there early.

In the end, in the two weeks before the Ball, they spent time together every two days, plus a Hogsmeade week-end. And without any kind of warning, Cedric found himself in love with the witty Slytherin, with her sarcastic comments, with the way she always looked around them to see who was there before going somewhere, her blue eyes that could be so expressive when she talk about something she loved and so cold when she didn't.

Not knowing if the feelings were reciprocated, he enlisted the help of the Weasley twins who owed him a favor (he had covered up for them once, giving them an alibi). He wanted to kiss his date, and so asked them to arrange for an occasion. When he told them that, he had in mind maybe some mistletoe appearing above them, and maybe following them around. Unfortunately he forgot just who he was asking for help.

And that was how they found themselves drenched in butterbeer. Sure, the mistletoe had been there, but it had apparently been enchanted to trigger a rain of butterbeer the very moment they kissed.

He found this appalling, she found this incredibly funny. Grabbing his collar, she pushed him against the wall and proceeded to thoroughly kiss him. When she stopped, she had a smile on her face and a very proud look. He looked absolutely flabbergasted. It seemed he hadn't been the only one who fell for the other during those two weeks.

Of course, this second kiss triggered the charm a second time. He groaned. Why had he suggested that the mistletoe followed them?

Surprisingly, she just laughed and conjured an umbrella. They were both soaked with the sticky liquid, her hair were plastered against her face and her make-up had smeared. She looked beautiful.

He told her so and she kissed him again, more lightly this time. Daphne rested her head on his shoulder and spoke mischievously:

"I think this call for retaliation, don't you think? Let's give those redheaded menaces a taste of their own medicine."

Yes, she was perfect for him and he for her. Definitely magical.


End file.
